via NY Governor Andrew Cuomo
For almost 80 years, the Old Kosciuszko Bridge connected Brooklyn and Queens in New York. Much like many other bridges its age, it is being replaced due to capacity issues and deterioration. When it was completed in 1939, it was built for 10,000 cars per day. Unfortunately for the people who needed to use that bridge that past few decades, around 180,000 cars used it.
In the beginning of October, the old bridge, which sits next to the partially completed new bridge, was officially imploded, amid fanfare. Twenty-two million pounds of steel, spread across 20 spans (10 on the Brooklyn side, 10 on the Queens side) fell to the earth below after the explosions were triggered by a computer.
All of the steel that was imploded was located above ground, but there were some environmental concerns about the span that was above the Newtown Creek. To avoid this, the center part of the bridge was dismantled and slowly lowered to a barge below. A video of that process can be watched below the video of the implosion.
Now that the old bridge is out of the way, the new Kosciuszko Bridge is expected to be fully complete in the year 2020. The total project contract amount is $554.77 million.
The first video below is drone footage shared by NY Governor Andrew Cuomo on Youtube:
This second video was uploaded to Youtube by the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Demolitions by implosion can be fun to watch when they go right – or wrong – but nearby residents can be greatly affected by the high powered blasts and huge clouds of debris that follow. A few years ago, a botched demolition in England left dozens of nearby residents unable to return to their homes for several days. Last week, an obsolete Steel Basic Oxygen Plant in Weirton, West Virginia is leaving residents in a similar situation.